diff --git a/lisp/international/iso-transl.el b/lisp/international/iso-transl.el
index 1e8000add67..cbfed67ae91 100644
--- a/lisp/international/iso-transl.el
+++ b/lisp/international/iso-transl.el
@@ -242,18 +242,22 @@
     ("^^s"  . [?š])
     ("^^u"  . [?ǔ])
     ("^^z"  . [?ž])
-    (")A"   . [?Ă])
-    (")E"   . [?Ĕ])
-    (")G"   . [?Ğ])
-    (")I"   . [?Ĭ])
-    (")O"   . [?Ŏ])
-    (")U"   . [?Ŭ])
-    (")a"   . [?ă])
-    (")e"   . [?ĕ])
-    (")g"   . [?ğ])
-    (")i"   . [?ĭ])
-    (")o"   . [?ŏ])
-    (")u"   . [?ŭ])
+    ;; The backslashes in front of the parens below are useless/ineffective
+    ;; in terms of the code's semantics, but we keep them just to stop
+    ;; show-paren from trying to find their matching opener and highlighting
+    ;; them in meaningless way.
+    ("\)A"  . [?Ă])
+    ("\)E"  . [?Ĕ])
+    ("\)G"  . [?Ğ])
+    ("\)I"  . [?Ĭ])
+    ("\)O"  . [?Ŏ])
+    ("\)U"  . [?Ŭ])
+    ("\)a"  . [?ă])
+    ("\)e"  . [?ĕ])
+    ("\)g"  . [?ğ])
+    ("\)i"  . [?ĭ])
+    ("\)o"  . [?ŏ])
+    ("\)u"  . [?ŭ])
     ("_a"   . [?ª])
     ("_o"   . [?º])
     ("`A"   . [?À])